New Beginnings
by shearingdelight
Summary: Sasuke had been kidnapped as a child. Hinata lost here memory when a mission had gone terribly wrong. Kabuto did not belong nor had a purpose. They find each other and make a new beginning, a new clan, and a new life where they both can find happiness.
1. Prolouge

She didn't know what to do.

He had let her.

Alone.

In the dark.

She had not been far from him in years, since she had woken up with very few memories and even less life left in her. She had leaned on him out of pure necessity in the beginning, not having anything stable to hold onto in a fast moving rocky world that she did not understand. He gave her a purpose and taught her to live when the few memories that were still found in her brain failed her.

His strong hand held hers as she fought with her last remaining energy to continuing to breath. His warm strong hand had held hers, giving her a strength to fight. Fight for a life she was not even conscience she wanted or needed. His hand drove the instinctual fight to continue on breathing.

Before anything else she remembered his hand. Before the memory of remembering to breath without the machine or the clean smell of the room she laid in. Before the bright eye stinging lights or the starchy sheets, it was his hand that came to mind first. His big beautiful hand that kept her alive that she remembered most in the beginning of her new life.

A new life because she had an old life that she could not remember. Not all of it was gone but what was left was a fragmented and fuzzy recollection of memories that served no other purpose but to drive her to figure out who and what she had been before.

Her new life with him had started after an accident. One she could only remember by the pain and the blackness before his hand came into her world. An accident that he would never fully explain to her because he hadn't known either. He had just found her bloody broken body on a river bank. He said it was pure curiosity that had drawn him to help her in the first place, then as he pulled her up out of the mud and she clung to him it became more than curiosity.

The beginning of a new life without her even knowing an old life.

And he had left her.

Alone.

Without any more than a simple explanation then it was to keep her safe.

She had to believe he would come back like he promised.

"I will come back to your side, even if it takes me years I will come back. I have to leave to keep you safe. I have to keep the snake away from you and that means staying away from you. I will be back. I promise." He had whispered to her as he had left her in the rain.

 _He promised. He promised to come back to me_. Hinata thought as she snuggled a little deeper into her temporary bed.


	2. Chapter 1

This is my first story that I have ever published, so I know it will be rough around the edges. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you for reading.

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Kabuto watched as Hinata stood in the clearing. She had been motionless for hours, just standing there as the breeze shifted her clothing and hair. He had found her when the sun had already gotten a good start on the day; it was now edging its way to sink below the horizon.

 _Ah,_ he thought. _Today is the anniversary._

He remembered that every year on this day she would find a clearing and stand completely still for hours. He thought it might be her way of coping with the loss that still haunted her.

He should have known because she had disappeared from camp before dawn. At least the pain had eased these past five years. The first year without Sasuke with them had been the hardest. Kabuto had been truly worried that she would not survive the heart ache that came with the missing part of the trio. He had to be conniving to get her to eat and gain strength, using Sasuke's promise to push her to do anything other than lay there and die.

The first year this tradition had started on the first year anniversary after the missing third had come around had truly scared him because Hinata had let out so much anger and frustration that she screamed and cry until her voice would hold out no longer. He would not have believed her demeanor would allow such things, but everyone has their breaking point. Breaking came to everyone at some point or another. Watching hers had torn his heart to shreds and when it put itself back together she had fully implanted herself in his heart for good.

"Well," He sighed "it will be dark soon."

Kabuto walked carefully into the clearing. He did not know whether she had felt his presence before but he did not want to frighten her. She seemed oblivious to the world, and when those trained in ninja arts came back suddenly to the world they tended to lash out.

"Hinata, it will be getting dark soon. We should head back to camp with the others." Kabuto stated calmly.

Hinata eyes began to focus and she was finally back to the world around her.

Hinata looked lost for a second "He hasn't come. I don't know whether I am relieved that he isn't here or angry he still hasn't come. Or maybe I still miss him in my heart."

She was calm. After the rage of the first year of it being just the two of them Hinata had become very calm and peaceful. He always took note of how different she was compared to the girl she was in Konoha all those years ago.

She had asked him once who she was; when she found out he had known her former self. When he relayed the information that he had gathered of her she had paused for a long minute. When she spoke she had shocked him. "She was just as broken as I am now, but she had the strength to keep fighting. I will keep with her strength even when so much of her is gone."

Now looking at the woman she had become over the course of ten years, he saw that strength burn brighter in her than any star.

"Maybe it is a little of all three." Kabuto said quietly.

"Maybe you are right" She said as she smiled turning his way. "Shall we go?"

"I'm surprised you are not completely exhausted standing in that same spot. You normally don't spend so much time inactive. It really isn't healthy." Kabuto started as they both turned to head back to camp.

"You are too good to me. You should hate me for what I did to you and Sasuke five years ago. How I marked the three of us with that seal." She looked sadden for a moment.

Kabuto thought that she was probably right. To be bound so closely with other beings as to be able to feel their emotions and hear the whispers of their deepest thoughts had been an adjustment. He hadn't even asked for it, just been there when Hinata had performed a long forgotten seal justu with Sasuke and it had somehow bound their chakra systems together.

He had a sneaking suspicion that this had caused a personality change in the three of them. He theorized that their conscientiousness being bound to each other had made each more empathetic and understanding. The connection making it possible to feel the others for some distances away gave a strange comfort to the mind and eased the perpetual loneliness that all humans faced in their hearts. He also had thought about other benefits this connection could attribute if explored like shared knowledge or maybe even a mind communication.

As they walked closer to camp he shook his head to clear of the thoughts. The two dozen other ninja that sat at camp waiting on their leader to return looked up at their approach. Most were busy with chores to keep the camp a functioning one. The ninja of this camp were mostly refugees of small hidden villages that had been destroyed during the war. Civilians who had their homes destroyed and nowhere else to go had gathered here also. The small camp had started to grow quite large of late with many having nowhere to go or no money to rebuild. With the governments struggling as they were there were those who slipped through the cracks into homelessness and sometimes starvation.

Somehow a rumor had started that there was a clan that would take anyone in on the border of the Fire Nation. How the rumor spread or how it got started neither Kabuto nor Hinata knew but Hinata refused to turn any of them away. She became their leader, and they worshipped her in a saintly manner. It also probably helped that she had fought in the war alongside Naruto and the Konoha gang.

Kabuto smiled when he thought of how dense they all had been. They did not know that one of their own had been behind that pale mask that Hinata had taken to wearing during the war. None of them even questioned where this mysterious woman and come from and just accepted her aid because she had fought alongside them. Hinata had become a leader in her own right, and the ragtag camp symbolized that.

With good and hope comes bad though.

As Kabuto followed Hinata through camp as she greeted and chatted with camp residents, Kabuto took moments to check on some sick children that were still healing when he sensed a presence fast approaching. Ninja around them tensed and the civilians felt the shift in tension and started to hide in tents.

Konoha ninja broke through the trees and stopped at the edge of camp.

"What are all of you doing here?" shouted what seemed to be the leader of the group.

As the ninja of the camp got ready to defend or to attack, Hinata the ever calm one stepped forward out of the bunch.

"We are merely making a camp to get a good night's rest." Hinata said quietly bringing the encroaching ninjas focused to her.

Kabuto almost cursed. _She isn't wearing her mask!_

Panic almost set in when one of the other two ninja spoke up. "You're a Hyuuga. What are you doing out here?"

"I am just Hinata and these are my clansmen." she responded calmly.

If the ninja's jaws could have opened any wider they would have hit the forest floor.

Kabuto could have guessed their discovery was inevitable with how large they had grown, but now a fear crept into his heart that he would lose this peace and love he was starting to discover.


End file.
